"The community's only come back for the past couple of hours and the mood is very, very positive," recovery coordinator John de Koning said.

"Some of the residents' [homes] were inundated — the worst was probably about one-and-a-half metres, down to just over the floor level — and we're looking at about 40-odd assets that were damaged to slightly damaged."

Damage mainly confined to lower-lying area

Most of the community's houses were surprisingly clean because local contractors had been working on the clean-up effort since the middle of the last week.

"The clean-up just involved constant 10, 12, 13 hour days using local contractors," Mr de Koning said.

The impact was less severe in some areas.

"Basically the damage was mainly confined to the bottom end of town, the lower ground," Mr de Koning said.

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